Sheriff's deputy called to home to witness father SPANKING his daughter with a paddle to make sure he wasn't committing a crime
The unnamed dad called the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office in Florida
The Sheriff arrived, supervised the paddling and wrote a full police report
The Sheriff's Office said that they have dealt with a dozen similar calls
Its Undersheriff, Noel Stephen, has personally supervised 12 spankings
By Belinda Robinson For Mail Online
A father called the local Sheriff's deputy to his home to witness him spanking his daughter with a paddle to make sure he wasn't committing a crime.
Undersheriff Noel Stephen, seen here, said he had personally supervised approximately 12 spankings
The unnamed dad called the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office in Florida, to come and watch him paddle his 12-year-old daughter, and they dutifully arrived.
He wanted to discipline his child after she got into a heated argument with her sister on Monday, according to a deputy's report obtained by WLWT 5.
Noel Stephen, the Undersheriff for Okeechobee county said: 'There is a big difference between beating your child and disciplining your child.
'Parents are seeking guidance on how to deal with their child. You are entitled to paddle your child, whether you use your hand, you use your belt or a paddle within reason as long as your [sic] paddling the buttocks.'
In this case, the 'whooping' was not considered to be a crime, so the deputy wrote up his police report and left the house.
An unnamed local resident told the channel: 'People don't want to hit their kids because of consequences from the authorities.'
However, it's not the first time that a parent has called Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office to supervise a beating.
The sheriff's office said it had received several similar requests in the past and Undersheriff Noel Stephen said he had personally supervised 12 spankings.
But the sheriff's office stated that while it is not 'advertising this type of service' they will come to your house if they're not busy on other calls.
Stephen added: 'It's definitely not something we advertise to do, and even though law enforcement has been willing to help out in this situation, watching a parent discipline their child is something that's done only when a deputy has no other calls to handle.'
Two-minute news segment from West Palm Beach TV station WPBF25 (31 Dec 2014) on the above story. A local mother, interviewed, is very enthusiastic. There is some stock footage of toddlers being spanked on the spur of the moment -- not at all relevant to the case in hand, which involved the premeditated paddling of a 12-year-old.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
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6ABC (WPVI-TV), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 29 January 2015
Former little league coach arrested for spanking players
A father and little league coach is facing charges for allegedly spanking several kids on his team.
Jonathan Russell is facing four counts of assault on a child for spanking his 9-year-old son's baseball teammates over a six-month span.
However, there is an obscure North Carolina law that allows for someone to spank someone else's child -- unless that child's parent specifically tells them not to.
Tom Albright, the president of the little league, is now trying to change that law.
"We fully plan on going forward to say, look -- we would like to see the law changed. If you're going to say it's ok to spank your child when he's at your residence then there needs to be a change where you're made to at least tell that parent that that has occurred," said Albright.
The investigation against Russell is still ongoing.
RELATED VIDEO CLIP
for private, non-profit, historical research and education purposes only. It must not be redistributed or republished in any commercial context.
